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6 Ala. 367

Marler v. Marler

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1844

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1844-01-15

We.it of error to the Circuit Court of Montgomery county. Action of detinue, by the administratrix of Aminidab Marler, to recover certain slaves. At the trial, on the general issue, it was proved on the part of the plaintiff, that the slaves sued for were in her intestate’s possession at the time of his death, and had remained in his possession for more than six years next before his death.

Relies on Reichart v. Castator · Stovall v. London

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1844-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently November 1894

11 state decisions

50184418501860187018801890decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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GOLDTHWAITE, J.

¶1Our statute of frauds does not avoid loans, reservations or limitations of personal property, however secret, as between the parties themselves or their representatives, but only as to creditors and purchasers of the person remaining in possession ofthejwoperty for the space of three years; and not then, if the loan is evidenced by deed or will, recorded as prescribed. [Clay’s Digest, 254, § 2.]

¶2This, indeed, is conceded to be the general effect of the statute; but it is insisted, whenever an estate is decreed to be insolvent, that then the administrator is entitled to hold, or reduce into possession, any property which a creditor could resort to for satisfaction of his demand. And it is further urged, that if the administrator cannot thus proceed, the creditor will be remediless, as, by reason of the insolvency, he can procure no execution to levy on the property.

¶3In the present case, there seems to have been no question raised as to the bona fides of the transactions between the defendant and the plaintiff’s intestate; but we may remark, that even if there had existed a fraudulent intent in fact, as well as in law, it seems to be well settled that a personal representative is bound by the act of his testator or intestate. [Gillespie v. Gillespie, 2 Bibb, 89; Stewart v. Dailey, Litt. S. C. 212; Osborne v. Moss, 7 John, 161; Hawes v. Leider, Cro. Jas. 270; Yelv. S. C. 196; Steele v. Brown, 1 Taunt. 381; Reichert v. Castator, 5 Binn. 109; Densler v. Edwards, January Term, ’43.] However this may be, we are aware of no rule which permits a personal representative ever to change his character, and to become the representative of a creditor. Indeed, there is no reason why he should do so, for the creditor has ample remedies which he may use at will. Without undertaking, at this time, to decide whether a creditor, whose rights have attached under the statute of frauds, can or cannot sue one who takes possession of property liable to the payment of his debt, as an executor de son tort, we may remark that, if he was remediless at law, this, of itself, would *370be a sufficient l’eason why the property liable for his debts should be reached in equity.

¶4The case of Boyd and Swepson v. Stainback, [5 Munf. 305,] was one, where a creditor, suing on behalf of himself and others, was permitted to subject slaves, which had remained in his debtor’s possession for such a length of time as created the legal presumption of a fraudulent trust, and this after the death of the debtor, and after the slaves had been retaken by the lender.

¶5We think the refusal to give the charge requested, was proper; and the one given seems to be unexceptionable.

¶6Judgment affirmed.

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